Included with your bill is the “2021 Water and Sewer Rate Survey”. The survey compares the rates you pay for water and sewer service with the rates paid by the customers of neighboring utilities.
The rates we show in the survey are the rates charged to residential customers inside the City of Federal Way, the largest geographic portion of our service area. Because Federal Way charges the District an excise tax on water and sewer rates within the city of 7.75%, water and sewer rates are higher inside Federal Way than in other parts of the District*. Most cities impose utility taxes on the water and sewer rates they charge. For any given city in the survey, we are uncertain whether rates shown by the city include those taxes. Additionally, some agencies in the survey charge different summer and winter rates to residential customers. Where that is the case, we show a blended rate to provide the average cost of water over a year.
*Note that Federal Way contributes to the cost of maintaining fire suppression capacity within the City, which reduces the difference on water rates. On the sewer side, also note that a relatively small number of District customers within areas that flow to Tacoma and King County for wastewater treatment pay more for sewer service.